Keisuke
Keisuke (ケイスケ) is one of the main characters of the series. He is Akira's childhood friend, and makes a living as a factory worker. He and Akira grew up together in the same orphanage. Because he is a bit weak, he has always admired Akira's strength. Though he is a bit quiet and shy, if Akira is involved, he suddenly becomes bold. Upon hearing Akira's situation, Keisuke chases after Akira and also joins Igura, despite his weakness and lack of fighting experience. Personality He is kind hearted and well-meaning, but somewhat naive and shy. He has low self esteem, and greatly admires Akira for being "stronger" than him, holding him up on a pedestal while berating himself. He has also developed much deeper feelings for Akira, which multiply dangerously after he takes Line. He's quite determined and does his best, even if he knows he won't succeed. Appearance Keisuke is a handsome boy with medium brown hair and brown eyes. He is approximately 178cm tall. He wears a white short-sleeved shirt with a black long-sleeved shirt underneath, and blue coveralls that are tied around his waist. He wears brown sneakers. Abilities Increased Strength - Keisuke becomes much stronger and faster after taking Line, because he is extremely compatible with the drug. Heightened Senses - Keisuke's senses are also increased by Line; he can find Akira by scent. Relationships Akira '- Keisuke's childhood friend from the orphanage. Keisuke greatly looks up to Akira, and in his route admits he's been in love with Akira for years. 'Rin - They meet in Igura, and while he is initially wary of Rin's overly friendly personality, he quickly comes to trust him. [[Motomi|'Motomi']] - They meet at Meal of Duty. Keisuke is less wary of him since he's not in Igura. Shiki - Shiki and Keisuke do not interact much. In True Blood, they duel at one point. [[Arbitro|'Arbitro']] - Keisuke thinks Arbitro is a little creepy. They mostly only interact when Keisuke is signing up for Igura. Takeru - Takeru tries to steal Keisuke's tags. After taking Line, Keisuke kills him and takes his knife. In the Game History Keisuke was born in northeastern Japan, probably near Tokyo. He grew up in the "Toshima Bunny Orphanage" (a front for ENED) with Akira, and was among those experimented upon during Project Nicole. Keisuke was later adopted by loving parents and treated kindly, and maintained his friendship with Akira over the years. Common Route Keisuke is first introduced when Akira is taken into custody by the police. Keisuke attempts to attack the police, but is quickly pushed to the ground. Akira notes Keisuke's pained expression as he's taken away. The next night, after Akira agrees to Igura, they once again meet in the hallway outside Akira's apartment. Wanting to explain the situation and say goodbye in private, Akira tells the officers watching him that they're "the type of friends who wanna do stuff that might be a tad questionable" outside and quickly pulls Keisuke into his apartment. While in his room, Akira explains that he is competing in Igura. Keisuke is disappointed and worried, but is amazed by Akira's strength. Unknowingly to Akira, Keisuke follows him to Toshima, where they meet in an abandoned coffee shop. Akira is initially irritated that Keisuke followed him, though he's impressed that he managed to make it that far without getting killed. He agrees to let Keisuke stay with him because he knows there's no way he'd be able to get back safely. They spend the night in the café before exploring Toshima the next morning. In the old Red Light distract, the two men meet Rin, another Igura competitor. Despite being enemies, Rin is quite friendly and urges Keisuke to join Igura. Reluctantly Keisuke agrees to at least check it out. The trio travel to the “Palace” to apply for Igura, however Keisuke ends up refusing. Rin promises to introduce the two to a “friend” who can be helpful. He leaves the two alone to go searching for this friend. While alone, Keisuke confronts Akira about Igura. Akira tells him he doesn't want him to participate because of how dangerous it is, and because Keisuke doesn't know how to fight. Keisuke tells Akira he's going to sign up, and knowing that it's too late to change his mind, Akira stops trying to convince him otherwise. Rin returns and the trio make their way to see Rin’s friend. On the way, they witness the Executioners beating a participant to death. Afterwards, Rin brings the two to a neutral-zone club where they meet an information broker named Motomi. At the club, Akira and Keisuke see drug addicts using Line, and have the drug explained to them by Motomi. That night, Keisuke and Akira once again sleep at the café. They share solids, and Keisuke comments on Akira’s favorite flavor. The next morning, they return to the “Palace”, on the way seeing an Igura related fight, which makes Keisuke fearful but fails to shake his resolve. At the Palace, they meet up with Motomi. The three go inside and Keisuke officially signs up for Igura, looking quite sickly afterwards. His tags are an Ace of Spades, a 7, 3, 5, and 8. While walking back from the Palace, the two are ambushed by Takeru. Takeru steals Keisuke’s tag but is stopped by Akira. Keisuke and Akira make their way back to the café, but find it had been ambushed by a group of Igura participants. However, Rin had taken down the group before the two returned. While walking around with Rin, Akira gets dragged off by Takeru, who in turn was being chased by the Executioners. Keisuke and Rin perused the two, but lost sight of them, eventually they found Akira by a dumpster. The three made their way to a neutral-zone Hotel to rest and get supplies. Akira left to get some fresh air and returned a while later with new tags and Motomi. Keisuke, thinking Akira had won a match, forced himself to congratulate Akira for his victory. The comment pisses Akira off, getting on his last nerve and causing him to yell and rant at Keisuke, harshly telling him "It pisses me off just to look at you." Understandably, Keisuke is upset by this and emotionally storms out of the Hotel and runs back to the café. There he sulks, condemning his own weakness and wishing he were stronger. He reflects on his past girlfriend, whom he started dating to seem "cool." While with his girlfriend, he didn't spend much time with Akira, which caused him great distress. One night, Akira had asked Keisuke to watch a Bl@ster match with him, which Keisuke reluctantly refused, having prior plans with his girlfriend. The next night Keisuke broke up with her after realizing he was in love with Akira. After reflecting on these memories, Keisuke finds Line in the café and decides to take it. After taking Line, his insecurities about Akira turn into a strong hatred towards him. He brutally slaughters everyone in Meal of Duty as an expression of his new found strength. Not much later he kills Takeru, who was in pursuit of Akira. The next night, Keisuke confronts Akira. He is unstable from the Line, and grabs Akira, promising to kill him before leaving. He kidnaps Akira the following night, bringing him to the café they spent their first couple nights in. Keisuke says he’s been following Akira’s scent and admits to being behind the recent murders. He continues to say he wanted to be stronger and see all of Akira’s "expressions," but mostly, he wanted to see Akira dead. This is the turning point for Keisuke's route; if the player is on Keisuke's route, Keisuke beats Akira into submission, and anally rapes him with two screwdrivers. This goes on into any of Keisuke's ends depending on the player's choices. If the player is not on Keisuke's route, Rin will appear after Keisuke's speech, and Keisuke will run off. Bad End 1 If the player chooses to cry out in pain, they will get Keisuke's first bad end. This ending is commonly referred to as the "screwdriver end" to distinguish it from Keisuke's other bad end. Keisuke shoves the screwdrivers farther into Akira, giving him severe internal wounds. After forcing Akira to give him oral, Akira dies. It is unknown what happens to Keisuke after Akira's death. Bad End 2 If the player chooses to endure the pain, and then later on, when Akira and Keisuke are talking, chooses to say they don't understand, they will get the second bad end. This ending is commonly referred to as the "intestines end" to distinguish it from Keisuke's other bad end. Keisuke goes on to rape Akira, who passes out. When he awakens, Keisuke has disappeared. Akira receives an invitation to the Palace from Arbitro, and decides to go talk to him. He meets Gunji and Kiriwar on the way, who take him there. Arbitro asks to take a sample of Akira's blood, and it is taken away to be tested for DNA. He explains to Akira that they found and examined Takeru's corpse, and discovered that in his bloodstream was a large quantity of blood which, as the blood test confirms, matches Akira's. Akira's blood works to neutralize Line, and can absorbed into the bloodstream of a Line user when they swallow it. Akira leaves soon after, refusing to let Arbitro to run any more tests and possibly use his blood as a weapon. After exiting the Palace, Akira walks throughout Toshima. It is raining and he once again meets Keisuke in an ally, who says that Akira's scent mixing with the rain is “maddening”. Akira confronts Keisuke, saying he doesn’t want to die. (This is where the second choice is made.) He explains that what he said in the hotel isn’t what he wanted to say, and it always bothered Akira how much Keisuke belittled himself in comparison to him, which was why he lashed out. Akira goes on to say that people will always be strangers and can never truly understand one another's emotions. Keisuke goes on a rampage, drinks two more vials of Line, and the two fight. Keisuke gains the upper hand in their fight. He cuts Akira's face open, and tastes his blood, which due to the large dose of Line he took, has no effect in neutralizing the drug. After a short pause, Keisuke comments that Akira's blood "kinda tingles" on his tongue. Keisuke rips open Akira and drags his large intestine out of his body, holding it high into the air. As Akira dies, Keisuke whispers "I love you." It is unknown what happens to Keisuke after Akira's death. Good End If the player chooses to endure the pain, and then later on, when Akira and Keisuke are talking, chooses to say nothing, they will get the good end. Keisuke goes on to rape Akira, who passes out. When he awakens, Keisuke has disappeared. Akira receives an invitation to the Palace from Arbitro, and decides to go talk to him. He meets Gunji and Kiriwar on the way, who take him there. Arbitro asks to take a sample of Akira's blood, and it is taken away to be tested for DNA. He explains to Akira that they found and examined Takeru's corpse, and discovered that in his bloodstream was a large quantity of blood which, as the blood test confirms, matches Akira's. Akira's blood works to neutralize Line, and can absorbed into the bloodstream of a Line user when they swallow it. Akira leaves soon after, refusing to let Arbitro to run any more tests and possibly use his blood as a weapon. After exiting the Palace, Akira walks throughout Toshima. It is raining and he once again meets Keisuke in an ally, who says that Akira's scent mixing with the rain is “maddening”. Akira confronts Keisuke, saying he doesn’t want to die. (This is where the second choice is made.) Akira allows Keisuke to talk, then explains that what he said in the hotel isn’t what he wanted to say, and it always bothered Akira how much Keisuke belittled himself in comparison to him, which was why he lashed out. Akira goes on to say that the power balance between them meant nothing to him, and he enjoyed spending time with Keisuke more than anything else. All that he wanted was for Keisuke to consider himself equal to Akira and stay with him and didn't understand why Keisuke repeatedly belittled himself. He states that all he wants now is for them to leave Toshima together, alive. Keisuke goes on a rampage and the two fight. Keisuke gains the upper hand in their fight. He cuts Akira's face open, and tastes his blood, but reacts badly to it and passes out. Akira takes him into an abandoned building and cares for him as Keisuke goes through both Line withdrawal and its neutralization from Akira's blood. After he recovers, he is once again sane, and confesses to Akira that he's in love with him. Akira tells Keisuke that he cares deeply for him and they have sex. They later leave the building to find corpses covering the streets. They find Arbitro in the Palace, who tells them that someone released a 100% pure concentration of Line, and the bodies are those who took the pure Line, overdosed, went mad, and died. Arbitro, his bodyguards, and Kau leave the building and Akira and Keisuke do the same. They soon encounter a man driven crazy from the pure Line and Akira uses his blood to kill him. The man later is revealed to have survived and attempts to attack them once more but Nano appears behind him and snaps the man's neck. Akira remembers Nano but does not know from where. Before he can think more on this, Emma and Gwen appear. Emma reveals that Nano, Akira, and Keisuke were all test subjects for Project Nicole, a secret experiment to develop the perfect soldiers. The research facility they were taken to was disguised as an orphanage. Only Nano was considered a success, and the rest of the children were released and had their memories wiped. Nano was kept at the facility until he escaped to Toshima, where he used his blood to create Line. Looking back at the test subjects' records, Akira was found to have blood that could neutralize the components in Nano's blood that became Line. Akira was framed for murder by Emma and Gwen in order to send him to Toshima, where they suspected Nano was hiding. They wanted to see how Nano would react to Akira, and if he would try to make contact. Keisuke reacted so well to Line because the tests and research done on him as a child made him remarkably compatible with the drug. Although Nano, Akira, and Keisuke are meant to be taken to the research facility alive, Emma has a change of heart and attempts to kill Nano. Gwen protests and Emma shoots him. She reveals that she would rather see Nano dead than back in the lab, suffering, and attempts to kill him but fails when he plunges his hand into her chest, killing her. Nano tells Akira and Keisuke to go north to the beginning of the residential district, find an alley with a rusty door, and go into the manhole in the room past the door. They follow his instructions and find themselves in a sewer tunnel. Outside they can hear bombs dropping and realize a civil war is finally taking place between the CFC and Nikkouren. Nikkouren wins the war, and accepts Akira and Keisuke as citizens, ignoring Akira's criminal record. Akira and Keisuke go on to work together at a small repair shop and Keisuke retains some of the strength and agility that the Line gave him. Other Routes If the player is not on Keisuke's route, Rin will appear at the cafe and save Akira. Keisuke runs off, and is not seen again until much later. * In Motomi's route, Keisuke's death is confirmed through Motomi seeing his name on the list of the dead they keep at the Palace. * In Nano's route, Keisuke is shot in front of Akira. In the Anime Keisuke's attachment to Akira is shown throughout the anime, from flashbacks until episode 11 where he eventually died due to being slashed by Shiki's sword. In Episode 11, moments before he died, Keisuke told Akira that he was glad that the latter was safe. He also said that he would have wanted to stay together forever, but he had to leave. He was embraced by Akira until his last breath, Akira crying out loud for not being able to save Keisuke. His death has become an important reminder of Akira to become stronger to battle Shiki, as shown and stated in the last episode. In the Manga Trivia * Keisuke height is not mentioned in the game, but it is listed in one of the official True Blood books as being approximately 178cm. * Keisuke's exact age is also not mentioned, but he is stated as being in his late teens in the same True Blood book, which would likely make him either 18 or 19. * Likes Green Curry flavored Solids. * His shoes are never seen in the game. In other official artwork, he is shown either with his coveralls covering his feet or wearing brown sneakers. Category:Characters Category:Route